Posted at 5:00 a.m.
They arrive at Parc La Fontaine, she in a taxi, he in a scooter. It’s a bit of a reunion for India Desjardins and Michel Jean, who have known each other in the many book fairs they have frequented for ages. And what I find cute is that Michel treats India like a mentor, even though she’s younger than him. “I watched you act and you were a model for me,” he tells her. Which makes India blush, touched by the compliment. “We met at the Salon du livre du Saguenay, which was my first salon. I came from TV too, so people looked at me in a funny way. There was a whole community of authors and quietly, people accept you and invite you to their business. You are the first who came to talk to me! »
For India Desjardins, it was a way of “paying it forward”. “I was very shy when I started,” she explains. In my case, it was Tristan Demers and Patrick Senécal who integrated me at the beginning, so when I saw new authors, I did the same thing. I thought you looked like actor Jeff Goldblum back in the day! »
These two have a lot more in common than one might imagine. They start the conversation by talking about their dogs, which they adore. India has a Bernese Mountain Dog, and Michel, who had three Portuguese Water Dogs, only has one left, as he has unfortunately just lost two canine companions from his trio. “I can’t talk about it yet,” he said, visibly shaken. And here are two of us wanting to console him…
Success is a construction
India and Michel are two extremely popular writers, but contrary to what one might think, it took them a long time to find success with their books. “There are many who think that the series Aurélie Laflamme’s diary was an instant hit and immediately there were lines at my booth. But it was built. I remember, I was standing next to the kiosk, giving bookmarks, saying hello to people…”
“You were working to build that,” underlines Michel Jean. “I went to see a shrink because I’m embarrassed and anxious in life, says India. A book fair is not necessarily my natural element. She had suggested that I smile, talk to people. An audience is built. In any case, I always remember my beginnings, and that all that can be ephemeral. I never take anything for granted. »
When Michel Jean affirms that India is a model for him, it is in particular because he saw how she was able to create a link with people. “I looked at the respect she had from everyone. We, the little ones, we watch, it’s normal! »
India Desjardins had no idea she could have this influence. “Basically, it comes to me from the fact that, when I was younger and I was tripping on someone, if the person wasn’t nice to me, it hurt me so much. I was clumsy in my approach to the stars I liked. So I have a lot of indulgence with people who approach me, because I know that sometimes it can be awkward. It’s not something I did for my career, it’s something I did naturally. »
That’s why people like you, too. You don’t play a role, you’re not phoney. I see some, children’s authors that I find phoney. You are the same person all the time, that’s what people like.
Michael Jean
I point out to them that these are two writers who really do what is called “after-sales service”. Michel Jean and India Desjardins never say no to readers, perhaps because they have changed their lives. Thousands of young people have read Aurélie Laflamme’s diary in several countries, and it’s the same for Michel Jean, who has been invited everywhere since his novel kukum won the Prix France-Québec and became a best-seller. Which may be jealous.
“Editor Rodney Saint-Éloi told me that one day people made jokes asking him if he was tired of people always talking about me,” says Michel. He told me: “With the success of Michel Jean, I sold 10,000 copies of more than shuni by Naomi Fontaine, so I like him, Michel Jean!” This confirms, for India Desjardins, that popular culture has a function. “It can lead to something else. I think that all forms of literature can rub shoulders and enrich each other, and that everyone has their place in this small ecosystem. »
First steps
They always knew they wanted to write and that led them both to journalism. But very early, India Desjardins left the job to devote herself almost exclusively to writing children’s novels, with the happiness that we know. One of the great turning points in her life, even if she judges her first novel severely, The Adventures of India Jones. Nonetheless, journalism has made a comeback in her work as she just created the excellent podcast Fall – Michel Brûlé, offered on OHdio, which took him a year of research. She believes, however, that the way people looked at her has changed since the publication of her essay. Mister Big or the glorification of toxic loveslast year.
“I felt a change in perception, but not in people who have been reading me for a long time,” she notes. It’s the next logical step. It is certain that before, if I had wanted to debate this subject, I would have felt insecure, because I would not have had the right tools. There, I have more confidence. I have more hindsight, but I will always keep my doubts and try something. Turning points, there will be others. My podcast is one. People never know where I’m going and neither do I! »
Michel Jean never wanted to leave journalism to devote himself to writing simply because he loves his job. At the beginning of his career, journalism took up all the space, because it was difficult to find a place at the time for people of his generation, he recalls. This is also why he did not mention his Aboriginal origins. Two pivotal moments happened in his life. When one evening, while working on the show Point, he realized that he had not yet written a book, as he dreamed of when he was younger. This is how he wrote his first book, Correspondentin 2008. The other significant moment came when his mother’s cousin told him at his grandmother’s funeral that he carried his Innu heritage with him, even though he had grown up outside the community. of Mashteuiatsh.
“It changed a lot of things for me, apart from my books. Since I was young, I reached out to this, but my family experienced racism. It wasn’t easy being the only Aboriginal family in Alma when my mother was growing up. The instinct was to say that we weren’t natives, that we shouldn’t be noticed. Either way, it opened a door for me. Afterwards, I wrote about these questions because I wanted to. When I wrote Atuk in 2012, aboriginal issues were not fashionable. He had to keep his day job! »
Honor literature from here
Of course, the immense interest aroused kukum is another turning point in his career. “Even my father read it!” exclaims India. Michel Jean does not hide that it changed his life, and that he even sometimes has the impression of having released several books at the same time, since readers then turned to his other novels after Kukum. He also believes that he benefited from a particular context, when people began to want to better understand Aboriginal issues after the death of Joyce Echaquan. But India Desjardins contradicts him. “Don’t take the credit away. It’s your story. It’s a book written from your heart, in an accessible style. There are several factors, it has nothing to do with the context. Ultimately, it could have had the opposite effect. Like your debut, which proves that it’s not because you’re on television that you’re going to sell books. »
“It’s even a handicap,” believes Michel Jean.
“The fashion is to seek such a star to write a book, adds India. But that’s never what will make the success of a book. That’s the story, what people are going to want to get from you, and I think you reveal that. Eventually, when you connected with yourself and your roots, that’s when people decided to discover you, and they liked it. »
We understand better, to see India emphasizing Michel’s qualities with aplomb, why he admires the writer. These two have this capacity for admiration and this concern to reach out to each other. Moreover, the conversation ends on our collective inability to honor our writers in the toponymy of Quebec. “In Sorel, what was called the new bridge was called the Maurice-Martel bridge, an obscure deputy, notes Michel. The Germaine-Guèvremont bridge, perhaps? »
Michel Jean is campaigning for there to be a Boulevard Gabrielle-Roy in Montreal, acknowledging that he is fixated on the author of Second-hand happiness, while India Desjardins is completely fascinated by Laure Conan, and would like us to act like in London, where English literature is celebrated in the public space. Come to think of it, these two would make excellent ambassadors for local literature to be visible everywhere. Because they are generous writers.